Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- PART I Strategies for using natural enemies
- Chapter 3 Classical biological control
- Chapter 4 Augmentation: inundative and inoculative biological control
- Chapter 5 Conservation and enhancement of natural enemies
- PART II Biological control of invertebrate and vertebrate pests
- PART III Biological control of weeds
- PART IV Biological control of plant pathogens and plant parasitic nematodes
- PART V Biological control: concerns, changes, and challenges
- Glossary
- References
- Index
Chapter 3 - Classical biological control
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- PART I Strategies for using natural enemies
- Chapter 3 Classical biological control
- Chapter 4 Augmentation: inundative and inoculative biological control
- Chapter 5 Conservation and enhancement of natural enemies
- PART II Biological control of invertebrate and vertebrate pests
- PART III Biological control of weeds
- PART IV Biological control of plant pathogens and plant parasitic nematodes
- PART V Biological control: concerns, changes, and challenges
- Glossary
- References
- Index
Summary
This strategy provided the first means developed on a large scale for using natural enemies for pest control, hence the name “classical” biological control. The term “introduction of new natural enemies” has also been used to refer to this same strategy, described below.
The intentional introduction of an exotic biological control agent for permanent establishment and long-term pest control
(Eilenberg et al., 2001)Importantly, the goal is quite specific: to release an exotic natural enemy into a new environment so that it will become established and will regulate a pest population over the long term without further intervention. Classical biological control has been used extensively and, as we will discuss, some programs have been extremely successful (Fig. 3.1). This strategy was initially developed to control introduced pests, based on the following scenario. Scientists noted that many introduced pests are not problematic in their areas of origin, where they are often controlled by a community of natural enemies. After introduction to a new area, in some cases the introduced species increases in number to become a pest. It is thought that the pest is able to increase because in the new area the natural enemies that would naturally regulate this species are not present. This basic assumption of classical biological control has been called the “enemy release hypothesis.” The goal with classical biological control is to re-establish the “natural balance” that controls the pest in its native habitat.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Natural EnemiesAn Introduction to Biological Control, pp. 39 - 61Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004